Over 130 residents attended a busy public meeting about the problems caused by Stepping Hill Hospital staff parking on residential roads. The meeting was organised by Lib Dem Councillor Mark Weldon. Mr Russell James, the resilience director at Stepping Hill Hospital, also attended.
Residents, who are affected every day by hospital staff and visitors parking on their roads, gave their views robustly.
“Most people who live near the hospital do not have driveways,” said Cllr Mark Weldon. “Local people, including the elderly and those with mobility problems, often can’t park near their own homes because all the spaces are taken up by hospital parking.”
Mr James conceded that the hospital did inadvertently cause problems but there was little they could do to force either staff or patients to avoid parking in surrounding streets. He then went on to outline the actions the trust were making to encourage staff to avoid parking on residential streets around the hospital.
“Stepping Hill are doing some work to help improve the parking situation,” said Mark, “but since the meeting we’ve heard that the hospital is considering greatly increasing staff parking costs on the site. That’s going to push even more cars onto the roads of long-suffering local people. It’s encouraging that the hospital has now committed to working with the Council on the problem though. Far better use could be made of the Hazel Grove Park & Ride owned by Stagecoach, but we need to do more to discourage local parking too.”
Mr James promised to redouble efforts to work with Stockport Council to try to alleviate the problems and Cllr Weldon gave a commitment to pursue an area residents parking scheme which recognised the needs of all residents and businesses in the area.
